One of my best friends got married this past weekend. The morning of the wedding her hairstylist called and said that an emergency came up and there was no way she was going to make it. Caroline started panicking and she asked me if I could do it. I had never done hair become and I was so worried about it but I had to say yes. So she explained to me what she wanted and shoed me the bump it. I had never seen one before, but knew what one was. It is so neat, it is like a raised plastic head band and it really does give you the ultimate poof in your hair. Because of the bump it, I was able to do her hair with no problem. I was so glad that it turned out. It is amazing how easy things are becoming now days

Today, I received my new phone. It is a Blackjack form At&T and I am so excited about it. I have never had a nice phone because I have really bad habit of breaking, loosing or dropping them in water. I guess my parents finally decided to trust me with a new phone. However, just like everything else I can not figure out how to work it. I have played with it but I only know how to do the basics. Does anyone have any input on the Blackjack phone and tips on how to use it???

Crisis communications for large global companies like Domino’s still requires a considered response—especially in today’s tweeting, blogging and Facebook-saturated PR environment. After a Web video showing Domino’s employees tainting food products went live on YouTube, the company’s communicators were charged with sitting on their hands for 48 hours before issuing a response. Yet an analysis of the day-to-day situation and brand reputation response suggests differently. Domino’s made the decision to get the facts and segment core constituencies for immediate response, rather than to “fan the flames” of a brewing online video posting when kids with a Webcam besmirched the pizza maker’s reputation.

Tim McIntyre, Domino’s VP of Communications, believes the company’s first-day response was right on. He and his social media communications team were forced to address the YouTube food safety issue—two employees whom he describes as “yahoos” and “goofballs” who stuck pizza cheese up their noses, blew it out on a Domino’s sub sandwich and dubbed the food ready to go. The prank went down in Conover, NC, population 3,000, on an Easter Sunday when there was nothing to deliver. McIntyre said the employees contend that the sub was never served.

“Savvy Domino’s consumers brought this to our attention, and we confirmed the prank by Monday morning, April 13,” McIntyre says. The communications team’s next step was to identify the store, fire the employees, call the Conover and NC Health Departments, and ensure product safety. There was also a call to police and Domino’s store security. All of these internal moves and public health considerations took time, but, he says, getting a handle on the crisis had to come before external communications.

“Domino’s also contacted our franchisees to see how they could get involved to engage customers,” McIntyre says. He noted that the “Good As You” (GAY) online community posted the offensive video, as the pranksters announced, “We’re gay” during the nose-blowing incident. “We had to address constituents and they became invaluable allies,” McIntyre says.

Meanwhile, the social media team monitored the blogosphere for other posts. Domino’s asked YouTube executives to take the video down. The team produced a video apology by Domino’s USA President Patrick Doyle and then linked or tagged that response to every incident of YouTube postings it could find. The apology was produced and ready by Tuesday, April 14, and mass media press went out.

According to McIntyre’s post-crisis analysis, Domino’s could have done a better job on Twitter. “That is one we missed,” he says. “We got into a dialogue on Twitter by 10 p.m. on Tuesday,” within 12-hours of learning of the video. The [Twitter-ers] were wondering why Domino’s had waited so long, and they expected a faster one-day response. But once addressed, he says, “The Twitter community actually made the crisis bigger.”

“We communicated with our core constituencies,” McIntyre says. “Those who already were exposed to the viral video, customers who complained, store owners. How wide do you send this message? Do you fan the flames so that people go view the first video or search more about it? If you hit the mass media button, you might force folks to go ahead and look at something.”

According to McIntyre, some mass media used the crisis for ratings and sensationalized the story, while others did the opposite. He says, for example, that Anderson Cooper’s CNN team called, investigated and determined the YouTube post was a non-story.

“Do you put out a candle with a firehouse?” McIntyre says. “Today, the fragmented media gives you no time to fight those fires. I am expected to grab a video Webcam, grab my ax and answer in real-time.”

Three fourths of the U.S. still doesn’t know this You Tube violation happened, he notes. “Sure, it is a big audience and our first response was to find out who these perpetrators are, remove them and then put out the fire. But that does not mean we did not do critical response things in the first 24 hours. The fire was not the Web community [advancing the story], the fire was our customer, franchisees and employee groups.”

In the final analysis, McIntyre says, “I am proud of our 48-hour response from the video posting-up to our President’s apology.” He believes Domino’s was the victim of the abuse.

Humorist Garrison Keillor actually wondered on his own blog why the offending video pranksters were given so much attention. He wrote, “This is the world turned upside down,” and that the incident “is amplified to an absurd level.”

Oh Twitter! In my PR class we were told to embark in 48 hours of twitter. At first, I was not looking forward to this. At the beginning of the semester I learned about twitter and experienced it a little. In the past two days I have become addicted. I am currently working on a huge paper for my Semantics class and I am writing about the quote, “how old would you be if you didn’t know how old you were.” I posted this on twitter last night (April 21, 2009) and I had so many tweet responses. I was so excited, and received so many great ideas and outlooks on the quote. This was the moment that I realized how helpful and fun tweeting really was. A few of the other students and I were talking about how we were addicted. I love keeping up with sports and I am following the Braves and the Falcons (two of my favorites). I also am following talk shows that I am interested in as well as my all time favorites, Paula Dean. I found a website the other day and you could pretty much find anyone you wanted on twitter to follow. It is called wefollow.com. Through this website I found many PR firms and PR help.Hopefully, this will come in handy when I am looking for a job. Getting my name out in the PR would early couldn’t hurt. I am so excited to become more twitter savvy. I have downloaded tweetdeck and twhril. I have to admit Twitter has become a necessity. I have to admit that twitter is getting more of my attention than Facebook.

My sorority at Georgia Southern University hosted the annual Phi Mu foundation Phone- A- thon. We called people all over the united states and asked them if they would be willing to make a contribution to Phi Mu. Each year a Phi Mu chapter is selected to host this Phone- a -thon. It is to help the education and leadership of developmental needs of collegiate and alumna. My sisters and I received a stack of papers of names and phone numbers to call. When we called we read off of a script. It was prompted to respond in relation to the people on the other end of the phone. When I participated I got a little taste of public relations. Public Relations is all about communication. We raised $62,300 and we broke records!